Slow Baja - Tru Miller On Wine and Angels At Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

Tru Miller, the lovely and gregarious owner of Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn, is the Grande Dame of Baja’s wine region. Originally from the Netherlands, Tru spent much of her youth exploring the world. She has distilled that lifetime of travel into her casually elegant hacienda. When she and her husband, Donald Miller, bought the land in 1997, they began hiring the best. Hugo D’Acosta became their winemaker, and Newport-based architect Neil Haghighat designed and oversaw the winery’s construction. The first bottling was in 2000. Quality and obsessive attention to detail infuse every detail of their magnificent estate. Under the care of current winemaker, young-gun Daniel Lonnberg, Adobe Guadalupe produces some of the finest and most exciting wines in Mexico. For our visit, we arrived at 10 AM and found Tru and her agronomer, Jose Fernandez, having breakfast at the kitchen’s communal table. She beckoned us to join them, and we were delighted that we did. The eggs and machaca with handmade flour tortillas were divine. Tru opened a bottle of Tia Tula, her rose-colored blanco tequila (aged for thirty days in used Rafael wine barrels), and all was right in our world. After months of staying home, it was beautiful to be sipping tequila after a lovely breakfast of farm-fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. Viva Baja! Enjoy the conversation with Tru Miller, Adobe Guadalupe Vineyards and Inn. Visit the Adobe Guadalupe Website Visit the Adobe Guadalupe  Instagram Visit the Adobe Guadalupe Facebook

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Slow Baja is brought to you by the Baja XL rally. The Baja XL is the largest and longest amateur off-road rally on the Baja Peninsula. It's 10 Epic Days, L.A. to Cabo to L.A. Check it out at BajaXL.org.

Well, I'm delighted to be here at Adobe Guadalupe with the famous True Miller. Famous. Famous. The famous True Miller. And I just want to say thank you so much for the warm hospitality. We walked in this morning and immediately had to sit down

and have breakfast with you. And then we had to have a little tequila after. And we've been treated to a beautiful walk around the grounds. And here we are sitting down to talk about you and your life and how you got to this amazing spot. So let's just jump into it. True Miller. Say hello. Please go ahead. Hello. Tell me about your journey to get to Baja to create this incredible winery. Yes. Really, I was married at the time to Donald Miller, who was a banker in Southern California who loved wine. He just wine was everything and we used to go on vacations

and whenever we could and he said you know when I retire I would like to have a winery. Okay well that sounds good. So then we started going to San Francisco of course and go to the all the wineries over there and learned quite a bit, went to France, went to Spain, went to Italy to try and I think we did that for maybe three years or so. And it seemed to be all very interesting and probably the most interesting thing was Northern California, but it was very expensive. It was really too expensive.

And so we started looking for other places and we found a place in Mexico. And how far did that search take you? Did you go into other wine regions around the world before? before you came here? Yes. You were also in Laguna Beach, so this isn't so far from home. That's true. No, no, no.

We tried to learn as much as we could. My husband already knew everything about wine, so we really needed to learn a little bit more about plants and earth and all these kind of things. But you know, he wasn't that interested in it because he had a bank. He was in Southern California, and he was really thinking that he was going to

enjoy seeing the plants grow and then having the wines. He wasn't thinking so much of working in the fields and things like that. He thought if we were to go to Mexico that there were people there that would do a much better job in the fields than he ever could do. Well, absolutely. He's a smart man. Yes. So when you came to the Valle, were they even calling it the Valle in those days?

Yes, I think it was always called Valle-Ira-Lupe. It was always Guadalupe. Guadalupe was very important for me. I knew everything about Guadalupe, what she did for Mexico and what she did for the people, really. And my grandmother was a socialist. Wasn't very well liked in the family, but I think I have a little bit of that.

And really, the lady Guadalupe on many different levels is so important in Mexico. If I can say for workers or I can say for people who want to learn or people who want to be in charity, I mean, I can just keep on going because the lady of Guadalupe to me is just pretty much everything. And so you came when there were probably a half dozen wineries here in the Valle. That's right. I think about seven. Yes, I think about that.

And did you have a realtor that showed you around? How did you find a, how did you find a winery in those? days. There wasn't really the internet. You weren't surfing from home. I thought the lady of Guadalupe was helping us a little bit in that one because we went and heard about this area in Mexico, which was so close because we lived in Laguna,

Laguna Beach. So we had heard of the Valle Guadalupe. So we went to Ensenada and stayed in a lovely hotel. And again, my husband was always wanted to speak with people, spoke to the owner of the hotel who later became the mayor of Ensenada. We spoke during dinner and he sat down with us and my husband said,

we've heard about the Valle Guadalupe and we would really like to go. Do we fly out of Tijuana or do we rent a car and go there? Where is it? And so the gentleman said, no. He said, look out of the window and you see those mountains. You go over those mountains and you are in a Valle Guadalupe. Oh, we said, we can go tomorrow. And then he said, you know, I make it even better for you.

How about tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, I have a car for you and my chauffeur who will know exactly where to take you? Well, when this gentleman became the mayor of Ensenada later, and I think last year, I asked him, I said, to how many people in your life have you said, you can take my car and my chauffeur to find the Valle of Guadalupe? And he said, one. He put up his finger, and he said, one in my life. I said, thank you very much because it changed certainly my life by having said that. Because then we went with his driver, and the driver said,

oh, and this is for sale, and this is for sale, and this is for sale. Really? and the prices were really good, which now I think it's much more expensive. But we immediately said, oh, this looks like, you know, perfect for us. And then I think, you know, somebody found us a person who talked to somebody else

and then the notary and then the attorney, and that was it. And how many properties would you say you looked at before you saw this? One? Only that one. So was there a little divine intervention? Yes.

A little of the Virgin of Guadalupe? Because, yes. I didn't even think of anything. And my husband, who usually is a practical person, who would like to see, well, let's see some other places here. Show me some comps. Let me see what other things have done. He never opened his mind. He saw, I think, in me that it couldn't be any other way.

I think. I can't ask him. He's passed away. but I think so, because he never questioned it. And I would imagine as a banker, as you said, he is very practical, and he probably questioned everything. He probably did. I didn't want to hear that.

Yes, exactly. Whatever he wanted to do is fine. So it does sound like it was a little bit of love at first sight. Definitely. With the property. Definitely, definitely. Are you able to, you've talked to me a little, little bit about your husband, Donald.

Are you, do you want to talk a little bit about your son and how that helped you? Yes, I usually don't talk about this very much because I usually start to cry, but it's fine, that doesn't bother you. No, and I'll be right there with you, as I said. Thank you, thank you. Because it was true.

This is what I'm telling you is completely the truth, but there's more to it. And I'll be happy to talk about that. Whatever you want to say about it. I know it's part of your story. Yes. And part of the guiding light, the guiding hand that got you here.

Very true. It was very interesting, but I'm really not all that religious, and I am from the Netherlands and, you know, pretty much with your feet on the ground. But when we were looking for maybe a vineyard after retiring in Northern California, one of our children, my son, who was studying in Washington, D.C., he said, you know, you know, if you guys want to do something with a winery, I would like to take a year off and help you. Well, we thought that was interesting. And we said, okay, that sounds good. So he said, you know, I'll come and meet you and I will look at some places.

Well, he died then in a car accident, which is I didn't want a winery anymore. I didn't want to do anything for maybe about two years. And I just went on with my work. I had a language school and went on with that. And that was just probably every day I had to do that. Until we went to, we heard about the winery area, the Valle de Guadalupe. Of course we didn't know where it was. we thought because my son, the son who died, loved Mexico. I don't know how you learned

Spanish. I don't know what, but he had serapes in his, in his, in his apartment. He had a little decal of the lady of Guaralupe in his car, and he liked to go on vacations to Mexico and then to Spain. And I think he would like to, he was thinking of becoming an ambassador in his life and then something with Spanish-speaking country. So that all kind of fit in a strange kind of way. And so all the more reasons when I came here and Vaya of Guadalupe, people ask me how come you came here. So sometimes the story of my son came up. And then somebody said after maybe six months being here, and do you have names for your wines? No, I didn't have names for the wines and how many wines are you going to make?

And so we're thinking of maybe six wines to make and with different idea. For example, we have a wine that makes you think of southern France, we have one that makes you think of eastern Spain, one that makes you think of northern Italy. And so you need to have names for this. So I thought, while we're here and my son is not here anymore, why not name the wines after the angels? And that made me feel really good. I just thought of it once. And that's what I said. They have to have names of angels.

And that worked really well. And it really wasn't done for any commercial reasons at all. It just kind of came. It's quite profound. Yes. And it's worked well. And it's worked well. People know about the angels.

Some beautiful wines. Yes. Thank you. So walking around, Adobe Guadalupe, doesn't look like you've cut any corners here. This is a beautiful, spectacular, stunning creation. Did you have a clear vision? Did you work deeply with an architect?

This is something else. It was such an amazing time. I mean, really, I don't believe in any of this stuff, but you have to because how we found. the best people to work in the fields how we then spoke to my friend my Iranian friend in Newport Beach and I said you know it's gonna be great to be this and he said now you need a house yeah of course you need a house and then he said I'll do the house and I said and I thought you know I need you know two

bathrooms I need special this and that and then he said to me and I see it you don't trust me And I said, of course, I'd never changed anything. Not one door, not one light. This is his house. It's a typical house on the one of those seas north of Tehran, like a vacation house for these really big families, I think. And that's what it is.

And then, my friend, I said, you know, I don't know if I can pay you for all this. He's very famous. I mean, he's a famous architect. And he said, I don't want you to worry about. about it, which to me meant that he's going to help me with this. And so the first time he came, the house was ready, finally. And so I put a plaque in the entrance,

and it says, in Arabic letters, it says, there's only one God. And when he walked in, put down the suitcase, and he cried. He knew it was for him. And it's right there, I'll show it you. Beautiful. So it's an amazing story that really didn't start

out as an amazing story. It started out as a very sad story. And then it became something really beautiful. Yeah. And it is truly stunning, beautiful. And people who aren't sitting here with the tears are coming down her cheeks and I'm going to do my best not to join her and are crying. We were just talking about baseball earlier. Now we're on such serious subjects. In those days, getting this done, you brought an architect in. Obviously, they're craftsmen here who can who can execute on this magnificent home and and in that you've built tell me a little bit about getting started in the wine business and where was your first your first start i know i've already met your engineer your agrometer how do you say it agronomer excuse me as i'm getting

tongue-tied agronomer so we already had breakfast today but how do you get started in finding an agronomer and then a winemaker. How do you put all these pieces together and get this going in an era again when this just wasn't, there weren't 200 vineyards here with 500 people doing these jobs? No, no. I know I needed a winemaker. And then, you know, somebody else said, oh, but you need an agronomer in order to have the perfect plants and everything. So we found the Gronomer and the wine maker, my husband, who always was used to the best, he then asked and he said, and who is the best winemaker here?

Well, the best winemaker here is Ura Costa. But he won't be your winemaker because he's one of those flying winemakers that goes to Australia and goes to Spain and France, where he also helps with different wineries. But first you need an agronomer because you need a person who will buy the plants, needs to talk to the winemaker which plants were going to do. We have to order them, and then we have to put them in the ground, and then you have to wait. So it all worked out because the agronomer, I just asked who was the best agronomer in the valley,

and it was difficult to get him, but I got him. and then who's the best winemaker, who then wanted to come, he had heard about he could just order any plants that he wanted at that point, to do something new. And we were thinking mostly at the time then to start with Tempranillo, which is a grape from south-east Spain, and he thought that would do really well. And then later with all the winemakers,

we have been going through different varieties that then become famous, and things like now, everybody wants to have maybe a... I can't think of the names right now, but everybody wants to like something different, and we can try it here because we're not like in France

where you can only have this kind of wine. Right. Or you can only do this. Here, you still, I don't know for how much longer, but you can grow whatever you want. And it's creative. You can be creative here. Yes.

If you want to do a Malbec, you do a Malbec. If you want to be a cabernet, you do a cabernet. And so you can do different things, different years. And if you have a lot of money, you can buy more land. You bought a lot of land, D'Nogos Negroes, where we're doing the mall back. And because you are so free here.

Still, I don't know how much longer that will take. Because eventually, I'm sure somebody will say you can only do this here and do that, like in France and like in Italy, like the other places. But now it's just a free-for-all. And I think that's just wonderful. Yeah, really. So you got going with Hugo, and how did that work out for you? Did the wine, did great wines come immediately?

No, not immediately because it takes a while. No, I understand, but were the first... It just, it was special, but it was special because we had the best agronymar at the time and the best winemaker, and they would make this, and we would take it. Ogo and I would travel a lot immediately to... Mexico City, to Paris, to do all these things and show people look what Mexico, you know, can do. It's not only Italy, France, and Spain. And so he was really very good about that.

And I just hobbled in the back and did my deal. And then one day, Hugo came and Hugo said he was so busy. He was asking to go to Australia to this. And he had two white makers that were helping him. one from Chile and the other one from Switzerland. And he said, I'll give you one. These are the best that I have. I give you one of these people.

Like you could give them one. And so I said, tell me, you probably call me Swiss because I'm from Europe and blah, blah, blah. He said, you'll see. He sent me the one from Chile. And his name is Dania Lornberg. He is now very famous. And he started with us. And young, with it, light wines, let's do this.

let's go. And now he just only work for us. He also works for other wineries. But I still feel that he's my baby. Yeah, you gave him his first big opportunity. Yes. You've already touched on it, but you've been a phenomenal advocate for Mexico and for Mexican wine. I would imagine that has to be a relentless pursuit to get snobs to realize that these blended wines from this beautiful part of the world that maybe they don't know a dang thing about is worth their time. And you've produced some wonderful things. How has that road been for you? You know, it was not as hard as I thought it would be.

It's a little bit like, you know, I'm from the Netherlands, but I'm from the eastern part, and everything that's happening is in the western part of the country. And so I've always been, you know, oh, guys, come on, you guys haven't seen our castles, you haven't seen this, you haven't seen that. So I've always been a little bit like that where I want people to see. I totally believe in what they're believing, but I'd like for them to give me a chance to talk about something else. And so I'm a little bit used to that. And I did it here, and I just knew, I'm not stupid, these wines are delicious.

And if somebody says, well, I am from this and that and I don't need to, and then I'll just say, please, let me just give you a bottle. And you try it. Please, don't even think about anything. Just take that. And so little by little. And then I really talked to so many restaurants and owners who then said, okay, okay, okay, okay, shut up.

I'll just put this somewhere. And the Mexican people started believing in me. And that was really, like, such a push for me. Because you can do this for a while, and you think, yeah, forget it, you know, I'll just drink French wine. But I could see that this was important for the people. So I think we've done a lot to educate people in the field and then make people feel proud of what they're doing. And I really think, not me, it's just all of us in the wine industry.

What is so nice here? And this is so amazing to me. Because when you go to France, you go to Spain, or you go to Northern California, and you know the people come and they say well I've heard of this other winery too and I like to go there here We'll call the other winery or we'll say you know they're on their way Whereas in really in many other places it's like ah don't even go there You know it's like oof not nice here and I don't know how long they'll keep this going but until I die We'll keep it going. We'll give everybody a chance. You know we have wines now where you know you you make it

with the cow in the field and the full moon and the natural thing, you know. And these people are just as important, if not more, where the world is going. And boy, if I can help by setting up or giving information or saying, I know this person, let me give them a call. And I think this is what made me different here,

that people realized that I wasn't jealous, that I didn't say, oh, don't go there, So I'd be, oh, their grapes are not even good. And this is important, and I want to keep this going as long as I can. Well, on that, we're going to take a very quick break on that, and then we'll be right back with True Miller and talking more about the wines in Baja. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruisers out of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance.

The website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at BajaBound.com. That's BajaBound.com, serving Mexico travelers, 1994. Hey, Bob Tourism is picking up and our friends at the Animal Pad and Tap Act want to remind you when you're crossing the border, just say no to puppy peddlers. I know they're cute, but the sooner we can end the demand, we can end the supply. For more information, check out theanimalpad.org and Tap Act on Instagram and Facebook. So I'm back with True Miller and we were just talking about how she is more than happy to help other wineries, help others in the Valle to have her guests

experience their wines and their hospitality. And that's a very rare thing. And I was just discussing with Sherry Bondi down in Bahia de Asuncione. She's bringing all these people in for whale tours, but she's pushing them out into local restaurants. She's not trying to. to keep everybody in in her corral only. Now, do you think, we discussed women earlier and women in business, Drew, do you think that that's more of

a female approach? I do. It's a very thoughtful approach, and it's a winning approach that you're sharing. So tell me about your thoughts behind that. I can't obviously talk for all the women. It's just something that I noticed. Last year,

it was a year of women, I think all over the world, but in Mexico, and in Argentina, Brazil, in South America, it was very intense. It was very intense in Mexico because the women here have further to go than the women in the United States. You know, they have higher to climb. And it just was a feeling that year of women getting together of how can I help you, how can I help you, how can we do this? And that was good, but it wasn't good enough.

It wasn't good enough for me because I thought, this is not going the right way. there's too many women helping each other. They're men as well. So I really started the last three months of last year to tell my friends, my female friends, you guys, we've got to do this for everybody. And this is wonderful that we started this. And, you know, in Mexico City, we had parades,

we did everything. Whatever you can imagine. I said, but, you know, we can go through with this, but we need men as much as we need women. And wait a minute, why? Why did you change? And I said, we have to change. We're going to die if we do it otherwise.

And so this is now really coming up. So this year, it's much more a year of women and men, men and women. And I really like that. And I really believe that last year was such a big year for us to come up. So maybe we're not quite on that line, but almost. Can you tell me a little bit about the beautiful tequila that we shared at breakfast? and any time you get to share a little tequila with breakfast, I think it's going to be a good day.

So tell me a little bit about the tequila that you're making, why it's different, and how you came to the name, which I also think is a lovely story, and I'll let you share it. Thank you. Again, this is about the women last year, and I wanted to do something special. And I think with the angels, I never know if they're men or women, so, I mean, I had to let that go.

and I was really looking for something else. And then I remembered that when I went to the University of Madrid, many, many, many years ago, the first book that you have to read, if you're doing something with linguistics or any of that stuff, is called Tiatula. And Tia Tula is a story about women that were so suppressed that they could not study at the university,

at Complutense at the time. And this was something new that women could go in. This one woman, she did her work, and she was ready for her PhD in literature. And she was very excited. She's the first woman who was going to be led in in this particular university. And the story goes that she's ready to go.

And so there's this book about this whole project, and it's called Tia Tula, and I'll tell you why. And now if you want to study linguistics and certain things on history, you need to read this book because, and it's really the freedom of women that was taken away. In the book, Tula is now ready to go to Complutense and do the last part of her studies there. And then the afternoon before, she gets a phone call from her brother, and the brother says, I'm sorry, you cannot go to the university. My wife died, and I have three children, and I need to go all over the place. I'm a politician. You need to raise these three children.

And for her, because she was going to be the first woman to be let in in something so special at university, she had to stop that. 20 years later, she did go. And so she did finish. But this was just something amazing. And so it came out that, and I put this actually on. It's on your tequila bottle. It's how your tequila is named. Thank you.

and then the tequila I named after her. Tia Tula, Tia's aunt. Antitula. Tia is Gertrude, really. Which is also related to your name. It's my name, of course. And I felt, of course, she's been gone for a long time, but I felt this special feeling with her that I couldn't have done it.

You know, you now have to take care of three children, and you have to wait 20 years, and then you can finish what you really started out. I think that's pretty amazing. So the slogan, even on the bottle is, let me think what's in English, it would be... I can't remember, sorry. Well, we'll have to have a little more tequila

so we can refresh our memories about the slogan. So... I got it. It's to choose. It's better than to be chosen. So go ahead, right? Choose. And then if somebody is not choosing...

for you that you finally do and comes out okay. It doesn't sound as good now as it should. I'm sorry. Well, I think it again, it maybe it was related to we had the tequila in our hands as we were discussing this the last time. But I will say that I'm thinking that there's a little parallel here in what you've gone through in your life. You're a child of World War II, and you were telling me a little bit about some of the things that your family went through. And obviously you're from Europe. so that was a very difficult place.

You've overcome a lot. I think so. You've built something really spectacular here. Thank you. Where does this sense of relentlessness come from? There's an elegant relentlessness about you, and I can just see it sitting here. You know, I know what comes from.

It comes from my family, and it comes from World War II and the European part, because I don't really remember the other parts of all. That, you know, and my grandma, mother and everybody else. I mean, they just stuck with it. I mean, it was so hard World War II in Europe. And I'm from the eastern part of the Netherlands, so I'm so close to Germany. And the last two years, so it would be 43 to 45, were just, you know, amazing, very, very difficult. Not enough food, not enough of anything, people being picked up left and right,

fathers having to go and fight for something that they didn't want to fight for. And if you didn't want to do that, you had to hide, you had to hide in a place maybe. There are so many like wardrobes where they made a room underneath in where people could stand. And they had to stand up, where, you know, the wardrobe goes over you,

And then when people come in that they can't find you. But of course they came with dogs, so they would find you anyway. And I think, oh, it's just amazing how, especially my family, just worked against that. And it was pretty amazing. And then after the war, you know, it was just so amazing. The Queen Wilhelmina was the queen at the time of the Netherlands. And her daughter, Juliana, I was pregnant. And so immediately they moved Juliana to Canada, where she had the baby.

And then the people in the Netherlands, you know, the people who have something to say, said to Willamina, you cannot stay here, obviously. We're going to take you to London. And she said, no, my people are here, and I am not going to London, and you cannot get me out of this chair. Well, you know what they did? They took the whole chair with her in. in it and put it in a plane to London where she spoke every night at six o'clock, you know,

people were listening to radios, God knows where, you know, about not giving up and not giving in. I mean, this is, for me, truly amazing. Churchill of the Dutch. Right. And then when she came back from London, the first thing she did, probably in the same chair, I'm not really sure, I just imagined that. She invited, for example, my uncle and another uncle who were working against the Germans. And she said, I want to have tea with these people.

First of all, before I see all the other people, the people that were working against... In the resistance. The resistance is the word I was looking for. I was to think of the Dutch work with Zet. I want to have tea with these people before I have tea with any other politician. I mean, is this amazing? It's amazing. And so I know a little bit about this because we were talking earlier, but you had a chance to study.

You had a chance to go to university. Yes. And you had a chance to see a little bit of the world doing that. How did you get to be a California girl living in Laguna, Laguna Beach? You know, this is really interesting because I was from Europe and I'm from Europe and I, you know, do my things. And then I had an opportunity to become a stewardess for Pan American Airways. So you start with the best. Absolutely.

And this is such an incredible story because I thought, well, you know, I'd like to see some more of the world. That sounds good to me. So I signed up. And I took my first flight on Pan Am to New York, from Amsterdam, I'm sure. And then somebody asked me that the other day. And, you know, those aluminum steps that you come down. I come down in a little bit, and there's this gentleman. He said, are you true, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yes, that's me. And they said, hello, welcome before Pet Am. Here's your green card. Wow. I never forgot because I didn't know a green card was so important. He said, be careful, take good care of it. Bye. Okay.

And of course, it served me so well to stay in the United States, you know, legally. I mean, that was just one of those things. This person showed up and gave that to me with my picture. whole thing. Amazing. And Pan Am was really something truly a cut above everywhere. It was amazing. It was amazing. And because of my languages, I was chosen for many things to do, to go on one of the planes, and they send me if maybe a daughter of a president or a daughter of somebody. I once went to, I don't know what country. And I had to wait in my

restaurant, my hotel, and the only thing I had to do was call every morning at 10 o'clock some office to see if the daughter of the president who needed to go to the hospital in New York if she was ready to fly. And so I had 10 days, I think it was by route. So you were an ambassador as well and a caretaker? Yes, exactly. So many skills. Wonderful times. But how did you, at what point did you decide, okay, I can fly out of Los Angeles as easily as I could fly out of New York or Beirut? How did you get to California and seeing the sun? Yes. I went because I got married to an American person who, and you probably remember these times, I hope you do, who had to go to Vietnam because his number was not a good number.

His draft number. His draft number. He had a bad draft number. Yes. His number was lousy. And how interesting is this? I forgot about this. Do you really want to know this?

I really, you know, if you've got the times, because then we're going to come back to Toir and we're going to come back to wine and gastronomy. But right now we're on your life. Tell us about, tell me about your life, because I think it's a very interesting story. And I forget about these things. My husband, my young husband finds out. He's studying oral surgery in Boston. And he gets the number and he's just thinking,

that's just a number. And then when he saw the number, he definitely had to go to Vietnam. So I said, oh no, no, no, no. I said, I'll just go with you. And he said, no, you couldn't do that. Of course, blah, blah, okay, fine. Then I'm trying to think what I could possibly do that he wouldn't have to go.

So I have a flight to Paris, first class. I'm working in first class. and there's one person in first class of Pan Am. And they're telling me that this person is an important person from Washington, D.C. Oh, I think maybe, maybe I can talk to him. And so I thought, maybe I'll talk to him right away because I probably go to sleep and he wake up in Paris

and I have never spoke to him. So introduce myself and I asked if I could tell him this story. And he understood, it was fine, and I only asked that is there way that I can do something or is there something else that you can do instead of going to Vietnam and he said well if your husband is a doctor maybe he could work in public health and I said oh great let's do that and he said unfortunately every important person that has a child tried you know to get that way out of Vietnam I'm sure he didn't say it that way but I think that's what he meant and I said

I said, oh, I couldn't possibly ask you for anything, but I'm so glad maybe I can this way send something to Washington and see what happens. And he said, well, just give me your name, blah, blah, blah. I went with my husband, because you could do that at that time. I went on a flight around the world because I thought I didn't know when I could do that and I could show him all these places. So we're at my mother's place. this is one of the last stops in the Netherlands, and the phone rang, and he never picks up the phone, of course, this is a totally different country.

He picked up the phone and said, just for fun. And he said, ta-da-da-da. And they said, oh, this is wonderful. You speak English. We're calling from Washington. And we have a, it says here, we have a spot for you in the public health service. You need to go for two years as a doctor,

and we're sending you to New Mexico. Fine, we said. It was great. Amazing. Amazing, wasn't it? So that's almost California. That's right. Did you ski and you went to Santa Fe and you did all that stuff?

Were you able to work there? Yes, I did. Could you somehow get from New Mexico to whatever? I worked at the university in El Paso. Okay, so you weren't flying at that point. No, I couldn't fly anymore because I live in El Paso. That's exactly what I was getting to. I probably could have.

No, you could have yet, but I didn't. And I worked at UTAP. And it was very interesting because the man you met this morning was at the same school. But I didn't know him. Yes. So you're there. And you've managed to, we're going to fast forward here because we've spent a little bit of a little bit. Is this interesting now?

Well, I find it interesting. So if it's not interesting, well, people can fast forward. Exactly. So let's get forward to Donald and his love of wine. And you're here, and you've built this magnificent, I think I've read that you built first just rooms for some friends. Yes, I never thought of having a hotel or anything like that. And then they come once, and then all of a sudden you say, well, now what?

That was the thing. You know, I just thought, oh, there's nothing here. There's no hotels or nothing. My friends, my friends are to come, and the friends never came. So then I thought we'd do something else. So this is a little question that I have. Why don't better friends come to Baja? I find Baja truly amazing.

Why don't more people come? What's your take? My take is that Americans don't like Mexicans that much. So you've been all around the world, and I always joke. Why does this country not like that country? Why does that country not like the one on the other side? I don't, so what is that all about? You said, you've got a plaque, one God.

Why don't people get along? Is that too deep? You tell me. We'll have to have more of your tequila to solve these problems. Yes. So you've built the bed and breakfast. Has it been successful from the beginning? You've created great wines from the beginning.

Yes, no, no. I mean, because nobody, you know, the first year, nobody came, and the second year, somebody came who was lost. So the first two years, no. And then more wineries started popping up. And then people started actually liking the wine because the wine then had been in the cellar. The news has gotten out.

People have understood. And then the wines, people realized that the wines after two, three, four, five years, they really did become very, very good. And all of your wines are bland. correct? You're, you're... Except one, I think, Nibiolo. There's one Nibiolo, which is 100%.

So if you were going to tell me about the wine that's nearest and dearest to your heart, what would that wine, what's... Tell me about that wine. Tell me about its soul. Tell me about its character. I don't know all that much about wine, honestly. I really don't. Well, that makes two of us.

That's why I'm letting you do the talking. Yes, but I really found that when I can think of a region where, where the grape comes from. And if I like that, it's easier for me to drink to wines here. And so I did this really, and it's so easy for me. We have a wine that has a lot of Tempradillo, and it makes me think of southeast Spain. We have a wine that makes me think so much

of the provinces in the north of Italy, which I love. Another one makes me think of Bordeaux, just like the Gabriel that we have. To me, you're drinking, you go, wow, is that a Bordeaux? And so like that, that's how I deal with it. And it makes me think of the country that it's like. And then everything, you know, comes up. We have a wine that really makes me think of Australia, New Zealand, like that. and then we have a wine that we make for the Rosewood hotels,

which of course are the hotels in the world. And Roosevelt said, geez, can you make a wine for us, just for the people of Rosewood? And so we make a Polvo del Mar, and I think that is 100% nebulous. So I've just taken a glance at my watch here, and I realize we've got a little bit of a schedule, so we're going to wrap up here. But I realize that we haven't spoken at all about your other passion,

which are your horses. Yes. Can you tell me a little bit about those beautiful horses that I saw driving me? It's a beautiful story. I'm sorry. There's such good stories.

I'm here. Let's go. When I went to a study in Spain, I always had loved horses, but I didn't really know about these beautiful Spanish horses. So I started going weekends, you know, to Sevilla

and found these horses and I met the families that have these horses. And so I met a family that I heard went to Mexico, but I didn't think anything of it. So when I came here, I realized that the people from Spain that I had known started a winery here and started and brought in these beautiful Azteca horses from Sevilla. And so they brought, and so I became friends with the family, absolutely lovely, I'm still

friends of the family, absolutely adore them. And so when they brought in these beautiful Azteca horses that are just fabulous, you know, from the south of Spain, they realized that here, the mountains that we have in everything, it's too harsh,

too big, too grand for these horses, they misstep, and they break something. And so We needed to come up, we need to come up with a horse that was from here. So what we did, actually they started doing it before I came, and then I became part of this, to find an American quarter horse, like in maybe the area a little bit more north in Arizona, all those places. We found these beautiful American horses, and so we put them together,

and that then came, we came out with these beautiful. beautiful as steak of horse that we have. I have 16 of them, and then my friends have so many. And my friends, they made this the official, by 1972, our horses became officially Mexican horses by law. So you've taken a little bit of the world into your wine, and you've taken a little bit of horses from Spain and horses from the desert region of the United States.

and created a local best for Baja breed. Tell me about the food here. The food is so amazing. And I'm sure you're American, and all of a sudden these Americans are coming and they say, can we see the menu? And wow, I mean, I've never heard of this before because it was just food.

Now it's not just food anymore because the chefs come from Waxaca. The chefs come from God knows where. They come here, and I heard you say Waxaca or something. It's amazing how Americans learned about this. Now we have so many chefs and we have such interesting food. What we do here is everything is fresh. And we have stuff from Mahaka, we have stuff from here from there.

But everything is fresh. So it's usually fish and oysters and strange things that grow in shelves. shelves. And people come for this now. They come to today. They come and they say, what's the menu for tonight? Here, we come up with the best menu we can, and this is what you have. We don't have other. But I can ask you this. If you tell me around two or three o'clock, you know, then you can see the menu, because we know what we have gotten. Here, you cannot say, I want this and I want that. It's five courses. every day, but it's five courses.

It's every day, whatever is the best. Yeah, it's the market-driven. Yes. The chef's idea, market-driven. I think that's a lovely way to live. It is. It's really a lovely way to live. And I would imagine from here you could source everything that you would ever want to serve within 50 miles.

Yes. Or maybe less. And you had breakfast here, so they gave you three choices. Thank you. They give you three choices, but it's, you know, that's the only thing we can offer you today. It's a little bit easier in the breakfast because it's usually with eggs and chilaquilis and all that kind of stuff. So we can do that. We can give you three choices.

But at night, we have a dinner every night at 7 o'clock with the wine that we pair. But so you don't really know what you're getting. It's very good because we have very good chefs. I mean, it's pretty easy to get the chef here because everybody wants to be a chef. They all go to school. And then here, of course, with this sea, with this. ocean and the wonderful stuff that grows in our gardens, you know, you eat well every night. Right. So we're going to wrap up now. And you've been very generous with taking some time and

welcoming me into your, what's the best way for people who would like to come and stay with you? What's the best way for people to find you? Is it online? Do they have to call? Is it just, you know, It's easy to find your website. Tell me a little bit about the business mechanicals of getting here and staying here. You know, we are Adobe Guadalupe. And I think when you go to Addo Guadalupe, you also see all my friends are there too. And you probably can see now we have a website. So you can see pictures of pretty much everything.

And you can now, something very new to me too, you can buy wine online. Right. So in Mexico, you can just get it here. from the store, we ship it. Okay, and I think we're shipping it free of charge right now. But if you aren't in the United States, we have, you know, a distributor

in Napa, so you can buy everything. It's just a little bit more expensive because your taxes, duties, etc. And then every state is different, and I know what you guys do, but everything becomes so expensive. And so you can get all the wines through

our distributor in Napa and all the information is going to be your website. It's all on the website and the man is Tom Bracamontes and he worked for Mexican wines for all of us very much in the United States is doing a very good job and his his his his all his information is is is on the web. And if the slow Baja audience wants to stay here at Adobe Guadalupe and maybe luck into some of the luck that I had in meeting you, how often are you around? I'm around almost all the time now.

The only time, I still have a place in Laguna, and my doctors are there. I have a problem with blood, and it's in my family, so I need to be checked once in a while. And I go, and I like to go to see a concert, and I like to do certain things in the United States. And so I usually go twice a month, and now I only go once a month until, you know, we can. So there's a good chance if you're here at Adobe Guadalupe, you're going to run into True Miller. Yes, I'm usually here. I like it here. You've really made my day special.

We have a luncheon to go to, and if you can tell me just one minute about this magnificent party that you've invited me to today, because I think I feel so lucky. It's a one time of a year party. We work very hard when we have the harvest. The harvest. we work really very very hard because you know you have to do the different times with the different varieties of the grapes and oh my god sometimes you have to start six o'clock sometimes you have to work till 11 o'clock at night and it all depends on the person the agronomar you met this morning he has a little piece of machinery that he looks through

and it has to be so many points and so the people are waiting with their little packages or the little buckets and the side and then you see the agronomers go in and then he comes back walking and he'll says 23 23 you want I think you want 25 or something everybody just talks and talks and then he goes

back in half an hour it's that close he goes back and then he might say 205 and everybody goes gentlemen start your engines right and you know very hard everything is my hand, everything then goes to, I haven't show you the factory yet, everything goes there, and it's months, it's probably three months that people are working, many, many hours. And so we closed up on Saturday, around 12 o'clock, and then you have off, Sunday you have off,

and then on Monday we have the fiesta. Today. Today. Fabulous. I can't wait. It's usually meat and tortillas and lemonade because, you know, we don't want a crazy fiesta. But everybody's there, and they just, everybody's happy. It's just another, another cassetta that were done.

And this year looks good. You know, we have a lot of grapes, and so that's good we have here. and then we also own land in Ojos Negros, which is the next place where everybody will be going because it's still affordable. And you can buy some land there and grow your own grapes, and you will be a very happy person. Sounds like fun.

Well, True Miller, you've been incredibly generous with your time and breakfast, and now off to a fiesta, a little tequila after breakfast. So I just want to say thank you so much for opening your home and your heart to the Slow Baja. and we'll be talking soon. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

The pleasure was all mine. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, you guys know what to do. Please help us by subscribing, sharing, rating, all that stuff. And if you missed anything, you can find the links in the show notes at slowbaha.com. I'll be back before you know it. And if you want to receive notices on new episodes, please follow Slow Baja on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for you old folks.